


Always By Your Side

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gift Fic, M/M, Matchmaking, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Series, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 20:37:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13326042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: Pegasus invites Yuugi to participate in a card expo after high school, but really, he's just matchmaking. After all, who better for Yuugi than the Black Magician himself? / Written a few years ago for Tachishini! Drabbles, may add more someday.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

Yuugi recognized him immediately.

 

The costume helped, of course. Pegasus had bragged over videophone that he’d hired the perfect actor to play the Black Magician, and insisted that Yuugi meet him at least once before the next card expo–-where they would have to spend the day signing autographs together, which wasn’t conducive to socializing-–and that insistence included an offer to send a private helicopter to pick him up.

 

“You’ll absolutely love him, Yuugi-boy!” Pegasus crooned, his honey-brown eye shining with excitement. “You must meet him right away! It’s like he popped right out of my card!”

 

Yuugi hadn’t the heart to turn him down, although he did wonder  _which_  version of the card Pegasus meant. Over the years, he’d turned out so many variants–-silver hair with blue skin, blonde hair with blue skin, auburn hair with brown skin, purple again with white. Yuugi knew it wouldn’t be long before he found out, though, and sure enough, Pegasus hadn’t actually waited for him to agree before sending his men to collect him.

 

He’d been met by Pegasus almost immediately, and the eccentric businessman whisked him away to meet his costar almost without preamble. Pegasus did a lot of talking without really ever saying anything important; Yuugi didn’t have much opportunity to ask what was going on.

 

“Barton-boy!” Pegasus exclaimed, steering Yuugi effortlessly toward the bewildered-looking Black Magician–-who was about half way fitted into his costume, with everything but the shoulder pads and hat on. Despite himself, Yuugi felt his cheeks darken; Pegasus hadn’t been kidding that he looked just like the card!

 

Barton was young and fairly tall–-close to Kaiba’s height–-with bright blue eyes that Yuugi couldn’t help staring at. His jaw line was elegant, and his shoulders were slim, but muscular. Yuugi could see the slightest hint of blonde hair that hadn’t quite been pulled back properly jutting out from under his violet wig. He wondered what sort of style he  _really_  wore his hair in, and for some reason, couldn’t help picturing it long.

 

“I’m thrilled to finally introduce you two,” the creator of M&W went on, tossing his hair over his shoulder with a flourish. “Barton-boy, this is Yuugi-boy. You’ll be doing the signing together next week.”

 

“It’s an honor.” Yuugi’s eyes went wide; he’d heard that voice before, and sure enough, when Barton met his gaze, the man winked. “I look forward to working with you, Master.”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two! In which Yuugi realizes the obvious, and learns some things about his favorite card.

Come dinnertime, Yuugi was beginning to suspect two things. The first was that the man playing the Black Magician, Barton–-whose first name was Mahaad, and Yuugi wasn’t surprised  _at all_  that he’d been born in Egypt–-was much more than a face actor. That he just happened to believe in magic, and that he worked as a magician in his spare time were too convenient coincidences to be believed. He just so happened to have a degree in Egyptology, and knew Isis through her work in the Cairo museum. That was how he’d met Pegasus in the first place.

 

The second, and perhaps more alarming, was that Pegasus was trying his level best to set them up.

 

Dinner was being held in a more private room than the dining hall–-with only a few people in the castle, there was no need for an elaborate banquet table. Pegasus had a smaller dining room, with a few tables, and announced that he would be eating with Croquet, who was dutifully lighting candles atop the tables.

 

“Purely for ambiance! It gets so dark at night,” Pegasus announced airily, and Yuugi didn’t doubt for a second that he was lying about that. It was summer; sunset was at least two hours away, and who could possibly spend two hours eating an (admittedly gourmet) burger?

 

Still, it was nice, getting to know Barton; the costume fitting had gone without a hitch, and he and Yuugi had chatted like old friends throughout the afternoon. Yuugi was beginning to think his eyes were deceiving him, because one moment they’d be ice blue, and the next looked shockingly similar to Malik’s eye color. Barton laughed it off when he mentioned it.

 

“Shouldn’t they be greener in the candlelight, little Master?” he asked teasingly, and Yuugi felt heat rush into his cheeks all over again. He couldn’t help it; the way Barton spoke held so much more meaning in that word. It made his insides squirm.

 

“Just ‘Yuugi’ is fine, Barton-san,” he protested helplessly, earning a laugh that sounded like the distant thunder that came with warm rainstorms.

 

“’Mahaad’ would be fine with me,” the older male replied lightly. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to slip up next week.”

 

Right. The card expo. Yuugi had almost forgotten why the blonde was here in the first place. “Are you really going to call me that all weekend?” the King of Games asked, “It just seems so…”  _Kinky_  was the word that came to mind, but he’d die of embarrassment before he admitted that his mind had been in the gutter nearly all day. He settled for; “Uncomfortable. I’m not a master of anything.”

 

“You’re a master duelist, aren’t you?” Barton--Mahaad--was smiling again. “I don’t mind. It suits you.”

 

Yuugi didn’t agree, but neither could he formulate a proper argument. “If you’re sure,” he said lamely, fiddling with his napkin to keep his hands busy. Mercifully, food wasn’t long in arriving, and that meant Yuugi could put something other than his foot in his mouth.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuugi gets caught staring.

Yuugi was falling hard.

 

He should have expected nothing less, really. He didn’t have a specific type, but if he did, blue eyes and elegant hands would probably be his top two physical criteria. Tallness went without saying, but then,  _everyone_  was taller than he was.

 

Mahaad moved deliberately and elegantly, and Yuugi didn’t doubt that he had dance training in his impressive repertoire  _somewhere_. Most actors could dance at least a little bit, right?

 

The blonde had a second fitting due sometime in the afternoon, but that meant that he and Yuugi had several hours to themselves on the island. Pegasus was mysteriously occupied in the morning–-Yuugi suspected he was suffering from a hangover rather than actually busy–-and most of his staff was unapproachable. Especially the men that still worked there from Duelist Kingdom. Even if they were essentially on the same ‘side’ now, Yuugi didn’t think he’d ever be comfortable with the spike-haired guard that Jyounouchi had punched out.

 

There was a garden Yuugi hadn’t paid much attention to on his previous visits to Pegasus’ island, and Mahaad proved to be knowledgeable about some of the plants growing there.

 

He’d never felt this way for a complete stranger–-but then, Yuugi reasoned, he’d never felt like he already  _knew_  someone this well after only two days. Mahaad was like a long lost friend back after several years’ absence. Mahaad had a timeless quality to him that was both welcoming and unusual–-just like the former pharaoh’d had. There was something comforting about being near him, too, like his presence guaranteed the same type of safety as Atem’s.

 

And maybe a similar sort of danger. Yuugi’s experience with magic wasn’t positive, on the whole; if it wasn’t trying to suck his soul into a jar, it was attracting psychopaths that wanted his blood. With the Items gone, that might not have been an issue anymore, but Yuugi couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t want to ask.

 

“You keep staring, little Master,” Mahaad said at length. They’d stopped walking some time ago, in favor of sitting beneath a blooming jacaranda tree, just off the path. The purple flowers were captivating, but Yuugi found he preferred watching his companion.

 

And he’d been caught at it.

 

Color suffused his cheeks for what felt like the umpteenth time in the past forty-eight hours, and Yuugi had to duck his head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” he said reflexively, “It’s not on purpose.”

 

“I don’t mind either way,” Mahaad replied warmly, flashing a smile that should have been reassuring, but Yuugi was too discomfited to find relief in it.

 

“You totally caught me, though,” Yuugi sighed, shaking his head in a vain attempt to clear his thoughts. Sure enough, it didn’t work. “I shouldn’t be… ogling you. It’s probably creepy.”

 

That earned him a laugh, warm and clear and sweet, and Yuugi finally looked back up to see the easy way Mahaad smiled back at him. Butterflies erupted in his stomach then, but at least his face couldn’t get much pinker.

 

“Little Master, I wish you  _would_  ‘ogle’ me,” the older man replied, leaning in to nudge the teen’s shoulder playfully. Yuugi wondered if the hesitation lurking in his bright blue eyes were an illusion, but didn’t have much time to wonder further, because Mahaad kept talking. “You might catch me looking back at you.”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the card expo arrives.

The week passed impossibly quickly.

 

The day of the card expo arrived almost without warning. One day, Yuugi and Mahaad were getting to know each other on Pegasus’ island, and the next-–literally-–the billionaire was flying them to the US for their debut.  

 

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Yuugi confided in a whisper, gripping Mahaad’s hand tightly. The older man was in full costume–-armor, makeup, the works; even down to shoes that made him just  _barely_  taller than his impressive height of 5’10”–-with his glowing staff in one hand. The other was twined with Yuugi’s, kept hidden by the folds of the curtains they stood behind, waiting for Pegasus to give their cues. Yuugi was wearing a just-barely modified version of his school uniform–-with a jacket secured at his shoulders, because in the end, Kaiba’s Battle City telecast was more famous than Duelist Kingdom’s had been. It was iconic, and Yuugi recognized it as a costume.

 

He was going out on stage as the ‘other’ him, after all.

 

“You’ll do wonderfully… little Master,” Mahaad assured him, running a soothing thumb across Yuugi’s knuckles. “I’ll be right next to you. Just smile and look…” he paused to search for a word, and settled on; “ _regal_. You’re the Duel King, after all.”

 

Yuugi wondered if he knew just how fitting a description  _regal_  would have been for the other him.

 

“I’m just  _me_ ,” Yuugi shot back, trying not to let the stage fright get the better of him. He wasn’t doing a very good job and knew it-–but Mahaad’s presence did help. Knowing that he wouldn’t be getting up in front of hundreds of people on his own was… something. He’d never done this before. A part of him wondered whether Pegasus was secretly still sadistic, deep down, for arranging this expo on such little notice.

 

Mahaad leaned down a little, bowing stiffly at the waist because the armor plating didn’t allow much movement. He drew Yuugi’s hand up to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles. Yuugi’s cheeks flushed visibly. “Then you’ll be perfect out there,” he replied, “No one expects anything you can’t deliver.”

 

Yuugi doubted that, but had no time to say so. The lights across the stage flickered, and he heard his cue;

 

“Without further ado!” Pegasus said excitedly, “I give you the King of Games!”

 

The Black Magician released his hand, turning his ‘little Master’ neatly toward the stage and nudging him forward. Yuugi nearly stumbled–but didn’t, miraculously–and took his first steps onto the stage. The crowd’s cheer was nearly deafening, and the white lights blinded his eyes until he wasn’t quite sure which way to go. Yuugi almost panicked, but felt a warm hand in the small of his back, and he straightened reflexively. Now wasn’t the time to back out.

 

They strode out together, and Pegasus smiled slyly as he gave way to the younger males, offering them center stage.

 

That had worked out  _perfectly_.

 

 


End file.
